friends > finals.

During finals week, everything seems like a good idea, because everything is better than studying. I absolutely love the ridiculous ideas my friends and I come up with. Last year, we agreed/made a bet to get blogs. This year we've been discussing our many plans for our Christmas break and random plans for our futures i.e. how to stay connected when we're married with kids and living who knows where in the country. As the studying becomes more and more frustrating, the conversation gets even better and the plans get even crazier. The frightening thing about this year is that we've already discussed some really outrageous, spontaneous things, and it's only Monday.

Obviously, my friends are a bright light in the midst of finals darkness. If I'm going to be overwhelmed with truth tables and court cases, it's nice to have other people be equally as overwhelmed at the same time. Simply having so many amazing people to constantly keep me smiling is just about the greatest thing I could ever ask for. Of course, the studying is really the least of the things we've been encouraging each other through lately. Just looking back on this weekend is proof that we've all, collectively, had a really intense semester where we've grown in so many ways. One Sunday morning at the Orchard at the beginning of the year, Pat said that "friendship is a celebration of inefficiency;" this has been beyond true all semester, and it's true again right now.

Efficiency, this week at least, would mean refusing to get sucked in to the distractions and the randomness. It would mean saying no to study breaks and snack breaks and exercise breaks and all those other breaks that seem essential right about now. Inefficiency, however, means agreeing to the breaks, and being spontaneous. It means stopping to have a long conversation in the hallway or at the dinner table even though it's seriously cutting in to the study time. It means enjoying this week a heck of a lot more than you would if you're merely trying to be efficient.

So here's to inefficiency, and here's to finals. What seems so bad can really be so good - having the right people with you is what makes all the difference.